Once they were finished with their discussion and had ironed out all the details of secondary mutations, the pair returned to the group who were sitting in awkward silence as 'Corvus' stood to the side with deathly stillness.

Cynthia broke off, approaching Astra, and began to whisper in her ear. From the shifting expressions on her face, Seth could easily assume that she was being caught up on the details of their discussion. At least, the ones that weren't private. He had no reason to distrust her, after all, she wasn't like Sirius.

If he were to become a distrustful, paranoid recluse from one simple stumble in character judgement then he may as not live a life at all. Mistakes were to be made, now he had learned from it. But there would always be ones he could trust.

Seth, meanwhile, stood next to his 'saviour' Corvus. That was the story they had cooked up, that this stranger had stumbled across him in his dying moments and used his necromantic ability to take down the beast Sirius had run from.

He turned away from the group, pretending to have a conversation with his alter ego, all the while looking over his puppet in disguise.

He would definitely need to work on making his puppets, at least the ones he was passing off as human, more life-like. Shifting their weight, flexing fingers, looking around at nothing etc. All these little things that would make them less unsettling than a person standing as still as a rock.

But such improvements could be done over time, perhaps he should just leave open a constant connection so it can feed off his subconscious actions. Yes, that would have to do for now. He would definitely find a better way to do it in the future.

Astra stood up, clearing her throat as she addressed the newly expanded group,

"Get ready people, We'll be moving out soon. No time for a rest this time, turns out we have a lot more hunting to do to keep up with sudden new demands."

She spared a glance over her shoulder to Cynthia, who gave an impish smile at the icy gaze, but she didn't expand on what those 'new demands' were.

"We will need to move fast, I want us loaded up with food and back at the sanctuary by nightfall tomorrow. I hope our new friend here can help us with this."

While the statement was directed at 'Corvus' it was instead Seth who stepped forward and answered for him, it was simply too mentally exhausting to try to speak through him for every little thing.

"Don't worry, there is a reason we have survived for so long, just the three of us."

The puppet raised his hand, before snapping his fingers. The sound echoed throughout their small encampment, lingering in the air as the hunters looked around for any sign of what was to come.

After a few laboured and nervous heartbeats, the foliage around them began to rustle once more. The gallant young knight's hand immediately gripped his weapon on reflex, his eyes bulging out of his head as he saw the small horde of undead stumbling their way out of the bushes and trees surrounding their temporary camp.

Beads of sweat ran down his spine and dribbled down his forehead, although it was impossible to tell with how perpetually moist his cerulean skin was. As they shuffled and shambled their way into view, he quickly began to count the corpses that had silently surrounded them.

'6…8…12…14. Fuck… I thought it was just the one that the commander blasted. There aren't that many of them, but… we were already surrounded and we didn't know it. Not to mention the guys themselves, they could have killed us.'

A knot grew in his throat as he swallowed nervously, images flashing through his mind of being torn apart by the undead before being forced to rise once again and join their ranks. Forced to attack his friends and family under the orders of another. Death would be a mercy in comparison.

'Those two look especially dangerous. I mean, does that thing have a bear skull? There's no way it's the same one, right?'

His perpetually clammy fingers shifted around the longsword in his hand as his eyes landed on a particular pair of undead. The ghoul, with its rippling muscles and long talons, and Bearemy the Skeleton, with his new head and glistening claws.

He was itching to wield his blade and use it to cut down the monsters, just like a true hero should, but he knew they were on his side. However, just that knowledge alone wasn't enough to completely snuff out his repulsion and natural instincts.

As the horde had finally revealed itself, the puppet known as Corvus let its arm drop by its side. They could almost feel the smug smile that would be hidden behind that mask.

Stepping forward, Astra slowly looked over the undead puppets with a scrutinising eye before breaking into a sadistic smirk.

"Now this is more like it. Let's see how well they fight."

***

An emerald dagger soared through the air, spiralling like a drill bit to stabilise its flight before sinking itself deep in the tender flesh of its target.

The grey squirrel, which had a tail made of literal smoke, didn't know what had happened when it had been struck by the dagger and sent sailing off the edge of the mortal coil as its corpse was pinned to the tree it had been climbing moments before.

The dagger wiggled itself in the tree trunk, shimmying its way out of the woods embrace, before retreating back through the air and landing in Seth's outstretched hand. With hurried steps, he collected his most recent kill. An Ashborn Squirrel.

While not the most filling meal they were surprisingly delicious. Their meat, oddly enough, came precooked with a rich smoky flavour as if perfectly prepared in a professional barbeque. Just the thought of tasting it again was making his mouth water.

However, he knew that he wasn't the only one that needed the food, especially those who were eating it for more than just stats. Speaking of, as he stuffed it into the storage pouch he had been given, he reviewed his stats.

Honestly, the 'transportation' gifts were more useful than he expected. Incredible storage capacity, although not infinite, that reduced the weight of anything inside to a negligible amount. It also had a handy feature of slowing, but not completely eliminating, the decay of food within it.

But he had no regrets about picking the knowledge, no matter how cool the pouch was, in his opinion knowledge was the most important aspect of humanities legacy, especially because it helped preserve and spread said legacy.

[Name: Sephtis 'Seth' Quinn

Species: Gaian Human

Biological Score: 92 Elemental Score: 70

Spiritual Score: 152 Psychic Score: 50

Mutation - Puppeteers Thread, Spirit Animal

Requitals: Life Lantern, Ravens Raiment, Expeditious Ratreat, Grizzly Reminder

Bonds: Omelette]

'Slowly but surely getting closer to the caps. Damn, Psychic is really hard to improve… But the Cat-Sith really gave me a good hint at how to improve my spiritual stat. Even if it's only one or two measly points per kill, eating their soul remnants is already starting to add up.'

Hunting in a party, especially one that was gathering food for others, meant he couldn't taste every kill. But even then, he could still steal a few spiritual points from each corpse. At this rate, he might even max out his spirit score first!

Dismissing his status page, Seth frowned in a mix of confusion and worry as he heard a sharp whistle bouncing between the trees. Since they had spread out slightly to cover more ground, that whistle meant only one thing, get here now.

Flicking the knife to the side, he sent the blood splattering across the grass in a chiburi that would make any weeb have a little accident in their pants, before he hurried in the direction of the whistle.

However, nothing could have prepared him for what he would find.

***

"What is it?"

"It's a person. Or it was before."

"Well, obviously. But I mean… Why was it like that"

The soggy knight gestured with his sword to the corpse laying at their feet, while he glared at Cynthia for her sarcastic response.

As it turns out, the whistle was not for distress but discovery. It was the older man of the group, the one who carried an actual blade in a scabbard instead of a Requital branded on his skin, who had discovered the oddity.

The makeshift hunting party stood in a circle, surrounding the human corpse that lay in the overgrown grass of the new forest.

Naturally, a corpse on its own was, unfortunately, not something that would have roused suspicions. Not anymore. What had drawn attention, however, was the bindings wrapped tight around the corpses' ankles and wrists, makeshift rope made up of vines and scraps of clothing, as well as a length of said rope extending out from the ankle bindings.

If one were to look up, they'd see a similar length of rope tied to a tree branch above them, both lengths having been very recently cut.

But besides these chilling signs, were the odd addition of a gaping hole in the corpses' chest, where its heart used to be, and the chalk white skin clinging to his bones.

Despite its injuries, none of them could see even a single drop of blood anywhere on the body nor in the surrounding area.

"W-what could have possibly done this? Another person? It had to be, right?"

The moist knight stammered as he spoke, his sword trembling in his hand as he kept it pointing at the corpse.

Narrowing his eyes, Seth focused his mind on the vision of his puppets. Specifically the puppets he had sent forward as advanced scouts. He had currently hid them behind some thicker trees as they watched with uncaring eyes at the display before them.

Having Corvus speak for him, since it was supposed to be his undead.

"No…Not humans."